Kuala Lumpur

Days 4 (continued)

16th Nov.

Abu Dhabi to Kuala Lumpur (KL), Malaysia

It’s so strange leaving a country at midnight and arriving in your new country about midday. This means we are even more ‘o’clock confused’ .

This flight was in business class again on a B787-10 Dreamliner, a new one for us both which gave us access to the amazing Business Class lounge in the brand new Zayed International Airport (incidentally designed by an old school mate of G’s, Andy Scholes!)

Stocking up, as you do!

The poshest smoking room ever!

Chilled.

Ethiad Lounge

The seating area was the same as last time but there were fewer of us and no bar! Better make sure I use the one on the way back, as not sure we’ll ever travel in BC again .

Another very happy Kelly!

I could get used to this!

Once again I slept on and off, taking pics of the lights down below and then marvelling at the lush vegetation on our arrival descent.

After exchanging some money we jumped into a taxi for the ride into town, I think it took about 40minutes?. Everytime I saw a high-rise I thought we were coming in to the city but we weren’t. There was also, as you can imagine, a lot of traffic enroute.

Eventually the spire of the new Independence Tower came into view, followed soon after by, amongst others, the Petronas Towers. Wow, I had always wanted to see them since following motor and bike racing GPS.

Our hotel is called: MOV Hotel Kuala Lumpur and is very central for the food and shopping district, the well know Alor Street which has a food market every night till the early hours is just a block away.

We arrived earlier than 3pm (check-in time) but as the room was ready we were allowed into it. That was great because after a welcomed shower we went out to explore.

I’ve downloaded an app called gpsmywalk, which provides walks in quite a few cities around the world. We started out towards the Central Market, but shortly after, sadly, the muggy heat got to us and so we plumbed for the local free bus.

We alighted one stop before the market to walk around Chinatown, apparently the first Chinese settlement in KL. The Chinese were bought in to mine tin, and the Central market – just opposite Chinatown was built for these workers. Originally it was a wet and fresh market. Today it is mostly dry goods on sale plus a food hall on the upper floor.

You can see that Chinatown was at the heart of early settlements here as it is surrounded by old colonial buildings. Apparently, the government give an allowance to the owners to keep them looking nice – clearly not all of the owners have taken up the offer.

There are lots of market stalls set up outside too, as well as some interesting metal sculptures. On nearly every corner you can find a mall of various sizes, so there is no shortage of shopping opportunities.

All of a sudden, we started to flag – the heat and time difference was still messing with us – so we caught a cab back to the hotel. The nice lady driver had her mobile to her ear the whole time !.

We set an alarm and had a siesta rising at @8pm for a walk around food street.

It had started to rain so we went out with raincoats, but it stopped a few doors up so we didn’t need them again.

As you can imagine, the evenings are even busier than the days around here and the food market was packed! People everywhere either looking for food or trying to get your custom for theirs.

We chose one eatery that was very busy with locals, always a good sign and ordered deep fried pork belly, mixed vegetables and a chicken noodle dish, washed down with Tiger beer. That was the first meal where we didn’t over order and over eat!

There is an abundance of seafood on offer, which we have found out comes mostly from Borneo. Strangely, there’s also a lot of frog dishes available too! Not sure where they are from .

After dinner we took a walk through the market and back again, taking this opportunity to try some Durian. A fruit with a really pungent smell that is banned from most establishments in countries where it is available due to its smell! I didn’t like the texture, it was creamy and a bit sloppy, after a while the flavour in your mouth starts to resemble the smell. Gareth ate a little more than me….oh yes, I forgot to mention you have to eat it with plastic gloves on as the smell will linger for a longtime on your skin.

We walked towards some singing outside a karaoke bar where a small group of people were busking. They were mature locals who were very good, entertaining the small crowd around them.

After one last beer and the inevitable people watching, we went back to our hotel for some more sleep .

Day 5

17th Nov

Whilst trying to decide where to visit on our full day here today, we decided to book a tour.

We were in luck, it was just us in an air-conditioned minivan with Helmi, our driver. I booked it through TripAdvisor and with pickup at our hotel it was £24 each for 4hours.

I can tell you that it was a bargain! Helmi was very good at his job, was very knowledgeable about Kuala Lumpur and Malaysia as well as being a nice guy. We saw all the main attractions, stopping for photos at most of them and thanking our lucky stars we had the air-conditioned van to jump back in to after each stop.

Helmi dropped us off near a huge Mall that had a food hall in the basement. Goodness, it was sooo busy and there was far too much choice. It was like arriving in an almost empty carpark and you just can’t decide where to park! Finally we chose noodles with pork and duck, very nice and just what we needed.

When we got back to the hotel, I went up to the roof terrace, had a swim (once the rain stopped) and a lay in the shade while Gareth had a siesta. We had intended to go out tonight to hopefully see the light and fountain show at the park behind the Petronas Towers. Unfortunately the weather scuppered our plans.

We’ve had the most amazing thunder and lightning storm accompanied by a deluge of rain. So strange when it’s still steamy .

Hopefully we’ll be able to get to a bar/restaurant for dinner with not too much bother

Day 6.

18th November.

Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia to Chiang Mai, Thailand

Last night’s storm was practically over by the time we ventured out. There were still puddles everywhere but not the flooding I had seen from our hotel window.

Gareth tried some Stingray last night, said it was much like Mackerel in texture, along with some chicken satay. The vegetable dishes here are lovely, I can’t help but order a dish of them with every meal .

Our restaurant table last night had minimal views of the lit-up towers. That will have to satisfy us until we, one day, return to the lovely Kuala Lumpur .